Writings on gender issues magnify scrutiny of Trump Fed pick

WASHINGTON (AP) — Additional provocative commentaries about women written by Stephen Moore, President Donald Trump's pick for the Federal Reserve board, emerged Tuesday, a day after a second White House Fed choice withdrew from consideration.

Federal Reserve Board Chair Jerome Powell accompanied by his security detail, leaves after attending a G20 meeting at the World Bank/IMF Spring Meetings in Washington, Thursday, April 11, 2019.

April 24, 2019

In a column for the Washington Times, Moore wrote in 2000 that "Colleges are places for rabble-rousing. For men to lose their boyhood innocence....To stay out way too late drinking. And the women seemed to survive just fine. If they were so oppressed and offended by drunken, lustful frat boys, why is it that on Friday nights they showed up in droves in tight skirts to the key parties?"

The column, reported earlier by the New York Times, followed the emergence Monday of articles Moore had written complaining about the suitability of female referees and commentators in basketball. Also on Tuesday, The Associated Press unearthed a column from April 2005 that Moore wrote for the National Review in which he agonized over the fact that his alma mater, University of Illinois, lost the NCAA championship basketball game to the University of North Carolina.

Moore wrote: "My wife has groused all year that I love this team more than her, but I was always the good husband. I would pat her on the head whenever she felt underappreciated and remind her that I loved them both the same."

Moore has previously downplayed some of his comments about women as "jokes" and "a spoof." Still, the newly surfaced commentaries come one day after Herman Cain, a former CEO of Godfather pizza, withdrew his name from consideration for a second Fed board position. In 2012, Cain had dropped out of that year's presidential race after allegations of sexual harassment and infidelity arose — issues that resurfaced after Trump said earlier this month that he planned to nominate Cain for the Fed.

On Tuesday, Hogan Gidley, a White House spokesman, was asked whether Trump had spoken with Moore and whether the president still had confidence in him for an influential position on the Fed. Gidley's response stopped well short of a full endorsement.

"I don't know that he's spoken with him, but we don't have any announcement yet on that front," Gidley said. Moore has been a well-known conservative commentator for more than two decades, including for the Wall Street Journal editorial page, and is now a visiting fellow at the right-leaning Heritage Foundation. He also was an adviser to the Trump presidential campaign and helped design the 2017 tax cuts. He later co-authored "Trumponomics," a book touting the president's policies.

Many critics have argued that Moore is far too politicized a figure to serve on the Fed's board and in any case lacks the necessary qualifications. Several other controversies have also dogged Moore. A lien of more than $75,000 was filed against him in January 2018 for unpaid taxes. Reports have also indicated that he has fallen behind on alimony and child support payments to his ex-wife.